A murderer who bludgeoned his on-off partner to death in a savage attack told her family that “she deserved it” as they pinned him to the ground.
Christopher Cook, 44, of no fixed abode, viciously attacked Jacqueline Kerr in her Sunnyside Road home in Aberdeen on January 15 this year.
The 54-year-old, who had been in an “on/off relationship” with the domestic abuser ever since they met between February and March last year, died from head and neck injuries.
Today, he appeared at the High Court in Aberdeen and admitted murdering Jacqueline by beating her to death in her flat.
Cook wept quietly in the dock as Advocate Depute Shanti Maguire described the murder in graphic detail.
She told the court that while detectives investigated her death, Jacqueline’s friends and coworkers revealed how Cook had started displaying “argumentative tendencies” and she was “intimidated” by his behaviour and at times had tried to end the relationship.
When her killer was apprehended – by friends and family outside Scotstown Primary School in Aberdeen – he coldly told them that Jacqueline “had deserved it”.
Jacqueline, a support worker at the Len Ironside Centre in Mastrick where she helped children with learning disabilities, failed to arrive at work, sparking panic.
During the police probe, it emerged that Jacqueline had shown a close friend photos of her hair missing from the back of her head, which happened after Cook assaulted her for not telling him that she loved him on June 1 2022.
During a FaceTime video call with Jacqueline, the close friend saw “her face was swollen and her eyes were black and blue”.
A month later, the same close friend caught Cook holding Jacqueline in a headlock with “blood on her lips”.
Christopher Cook told friend he had killed Jacqueline Kerr
Jacqueline was last seen alive at 11.42pm on Saturday January 14 2023 by a taxi driver who dropped her off outside her home.
The High Court in Aberdeen was told that around 1am the next day Cook left an angry voicemail on her phone.
Although much of it is “unintelligible”, he could be heard to say: “Telling me I’m f****** wrong, dirty f****** horrible b******, making a f****** fool out of me.”
During the early hours of that same day, one of Jacqueline’s neighbours was “wakened by two bangs similar to someone or something knocking a window” and then “a further two bangs a few seconds later”.
However, she fell back asleep.
Between 2pm and 3pm that day, Cook called a friend and colleague, telling him he’d killed Jacqueline.
When the man told him to call an ambulance, Cook replied that “it was too late”.
Cook visited the Premier Store opposite Jacqueline’s Sunnyside Road home at about 5.15pm.
He appeared to be “quite angry” a shopworker told police, who also recorded in her statement that she had noticed “a dried red substance around his fingernails and both his thumbs”.
That night, at 9.57pm, Cook sent a WhatsApp message to an ex-partner.
The message read: “I’ve killed her don’t say anything yet please I’m trying to work it out she attacked me and I lost it she bleed from her head she’s dead tell kids I’m so sorry and I’m really [sic] messed up this time”.
In a follow-up message, he then told her: “The girl I was in aberdeen ic come see her and she’s attacked me again and I’ve lost it and hit her woke up this morning she’s lay bleeding out her wars dead I’m running away”.
And a follow-up message added: “Delete everything ill ring tomorrow ill sort this somehow”.
At 10.07pm, he sent another WhatsApp message, this time to a friend, saying: “I’ve killed that bird”.
When Jacqueline didn’t turn up for work on the Monday morning, a concerned colleague went to her flat and knocked on the door but got no reply.
At around 10.20am police were contacted and, when officers arrived at the address later that morning, they noticed blood around the letterbox and forced entry.
They were met by a horrifying scene, with blood splattered on the walls, floors and doors and Jacqueline’s body was found lying on the floor in a bedroom.
Brutal attack detailed to court
A post-mortem examination counted 51 separate injuries to her head, neck, chest, arms and legs.
Forensic evidence linked Cook with the crime scene where Jacqueline had died.
Clothing he’d been wearing showed Cook had “extensive contact” with the victim for a “prolonged period of time as she bled heavily”.
She had been “struck forcibly and repeatedly” in the hallway, bedroom and shower room of her home.
Cook “repeatedly punched, kicked and/or struck” the stricken woman.
According to blood pattern and spatter analysis, it’s thought that Jacqueline’s head had impacted against a wall “with such force that it broke through the plaster” and struck the granite wall behind.
It’s thought during the attack that Jacqueline lost clumps of her hair “found scattered throughout the property” as Cook was killing her.
In between Jacqueline’s colleague turning up at her flat and police forcing entry, Cook left the address and drove off in her car, a cream-coloured Mini.
As news of the tragedy spread among her family and friends, Cook was identified as the prime suspect.
One of those people, Alan Groves, was at Scotstown Primary School to pick up his daughter at around 2pm when he spotted Jacqueline’s Mini in the car park.
Mr Groves, aware of the incident in Sunnyside Road, saw Cook in the driver’s seat and attempted to block him in with his van before approaching the car.
Cook locked the doors but rolled down the window slightly – enough for Mr Groves to smell alcohol on his breath.
Mr Groves asked Cook what he was doing there and the accused replied he was “arguing with his wife”.
Mr Groves then contacted another friend, Kevin Kerr, who called police to tell them where Cook was.
Mr Kerr then called another friend, Donald Stewart, and told him to come to the school.
When Mr Stewart arrived he noticed Cook was “relatively calm”, which he found unnerving.
A third person, Kevin Kerr, arrived at the scene and all three men hauled Cook from the car and held him on the ground.
Mr Kerr repeatedly asked Cook why he had killed Jacqueline and he replied: “Have I? Have I? Take a look at the CCTV”.
During the exchange, Cook was also heard to say: “She deserved it” and “If I get up I’ll murder you as well”.
When police arrived they arrested Cook, taking him to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary to be treated for head and face injuries suffered during the encounter at Scotstown Primary.
Defence counsel Michael Anderson KC reserved his mitigation for November 3, when Cook will be sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh.
Judge Weir told Cook: “You have pled guilty to a charge of murdering Jacqueline Kerr at her home on Sunnyside Road in Aberdeen in the harrowing circumstances described.”
He also called it an “appalling outbreak of lethal violence” and said the mandatory sentence is life imprisonment.
Detective Inspector James Callander, of Police Scotland’s Major Investigations Team, said: “Jacqueline Kerr was subjected to a brutal attack in her own home by Christopher Cook.
“He has now admitted responsibility for his violent behaviour, which resulted in the death of Jacqueline.
“While it cannot change what happened, I hope this outcome in court leads to some closure for Jacqueline’s family.”
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